eMarketer released a report today that I thought you’d find interesting. Their main finding states that the apparel and accessories category (in the U.S.) is now “climbing faster than any other other ecommerce product segment.” In fact, while ecommerce in general is expected to remain very strong this year, up 15% from 2011 (reaching $224.2 billion), apparel will outpace the market in 2012 by gaining 20% (reaching $41 billion).
And it’s not just 2012. ”The apparel and accessories category will lead ecommerce sales growth throughout the forecast period”, which runs through 2016.
The reasons for these gains? Well, eMarketer principal analyst Jeffrey Grau notes that “Retailers continue to increase the scale of their ecommerce operations, particularly by investing in online sales platforms that display products and convert shoppers more effectively; apparel sales have benefited more than any other category. Apparel has become an online success due largely to easy and free returns, innovative visualization tools and the presence of customer reviews.”
More data proving that innovative visualization tools help drive online apparel sales? I must say, it’s great to see 3rd party data supporting our findings.
In our continuing effort to share as much data with you (about augmented reality) as we can, we wanted to get a quick post up about this: One of our clients, Denmark based online retailer LazyLazy, was recently interviewed by Internet Retailer. In the interview CEO Søren Filbert had this to say about our augmented reality merchandising software, the Webcam Social Shopper (WSS):
”17% of our visitors are using this and they are converting two to three times more.”
Now, that’s a great stat, but when you couple it with data we’ve previously noted in this blog…
Online retailer Banana Flame saw a 50% improvement in conversions on the “add to cart” button after integrating WSS (more Banana Flame data here).
WSS is proven to help young women make more informed purchase decisions – “Seeing it on helped me decide” (Link)
… it becomes a trend. It shows that augmented reality can provide real value for people, which subsequently provides real value (i.e. ROI) for businesses.
One of the great things about ecommerce is that ROI has always been seemingly straight forward and easy to measure. All the necessary data is right there, at every retailer’s fingertips. They know what they invested, and they can measure the direct effect that that investment had on their business. But it turns out that in today’s marketplace, only measuring an online investment’s affect online no longer gives an accurate look into that investment’s true ROI. That’s because what retailers do online, directly affects whether or not they are driving sales in store too.
In a recent Forbes op-ed Raj Rao (global director, eCommerce and Digital Marketing, 3M Corporate Marketing) cites a ComScore report that states that 2/3rds of shoppers begin their shopping process online, usually on the retail site itself. The report also notes that nearly half of shoppers who begin their search on retail sites make a purchase in the physical store, while 40% transact online. Think about that. More of a retailer’s site visitors will end up purchasing in store, than on the actual site itself. Obviously, measuring ROI is no longer as straight forward as it once seemed.
The data above, and his own experiences point Rao towards the following conclusion: “Marketers must rise to the challenge. The solution isn’t banner ads or page take-overs that consumers despise. Instead we need to do the hard work of true marketing and ask: What is the consumer experience at retail sites, and how can I positively impact this?”
It probably comes as no shock to you, but we here at Zugara agree with Mr. Rao. Today, online retailers are content providers. Publishers. And just like in any other content driven business, the retailers that produce the best content, the best experience, will win. So what do you think? What stores are “doing it right”?
(Warning: Shameless Self Promotion) Oh, and speaking of online shopping experiences… have you heard of our product: The Webcam Social Shopper?
In the past we’ve shared the data we’ve collected on our augmented reality work. But we truly love it when others in the industry share their findings as well. Below, you’ll find data from a study that the folks over at Hidden Creative conducted on Augmented Reality and the Sales Process. I’ll let their information below speak for itself, but I’d love to get your thoughts in the comments…
From Hidden’s Blog:
The Methodology
100 people were shown a display advert for a child’s toy, while another 100 people were shown the child’s toy as an interactive augmented reality experience. Each person was then asked two questions:
Would you consider buying this toy for a child?
How much would you consider paying for the toy?
The duration of engagement the audience had with each format was also monitored. Let’s look at the headline figures:
Likelihood to buy
After viewing the 2D printed display advert, out of 100 parents, 45% would consider buying the toy for a child. Out of those who viewed the augmented reality experience, 74% of the parents would consider buying the toy for a child.What we found even more intriguing was the price point at which the parents were prepared to make the purchase.
A few weeks ago, we integrated our Ecommerce Augmented Reality Software into every product detail page on Banana Flame’s site. Now, data is obviously important to our business, but it’s our position that it’s also important to the entire Augmented Reality community. “It’s cool, but where’s the ROI? Do you have any data?” is something everyone that works with AR has heard. Unfortunately, most companies are tight-lipped about the numbers they’re seeing. Which is a shame, because as an industry it’s data that will help us to drive past being seen (by others) as a “gimmick”. It’s data that turns potential clients into “buyers”, and it’s data that gives investors the confidence to “open their checkbooks”…
So, we thought we’d do our part and share some early data from our Banana Flame execution.
Unique visitors that add an item to their cart are up 182%.
Some Engagement Metrics For WSS (On Banana Flame):
The average shopper spends 5 min 08 secs with WSS.
39% of shoppers click on the WSS “See How It Looks” button (on the product detail page).
45% of shoppers that use WSS take a photo.
17% of shoppers that take a photo download it to share via email.
does not include Facebook or Twitter sharing.
The average shopper takes 3 photos.
79% of shoppers allow flash to access their webcam.
2% of shoppers deny flash’s access to their webcam.
75% of shoppers actively use WSS’s Motion Capture Interface.
Please feel free to share this data with anyone that might be interested, and do keep an eye on this blog too. Since the launch of Banana Flame we’ve signed several new clients and we plan on using this platform to share as much data as we can.
As always, if you want to discuss, please comment below or you can find me on twitter here.
Sorry about the recent influx of ”Zugara News” blog posts, but we keep having exciting stuff to share with you. Today’s news is that we were on the News! KTLA’s Rich Demuro profiled our Ecommerce Augmented Reality Software, “The Webcam Social Shopper” on the morning news today. As you’ll see in the piece, shop owners are definitely excited about the product. Admittedly, it feels great to have a testimonial like that on tape .
The video is below, and as always, we’d love to know your thoughts.
Zugara is proud to announce the launch of “Plug & Play”, the newest version of our Augmented Reality Ecommerce Software, “The Webcam Social Shopper” (WSS). WSS Plug & Play is a product that integrates right into retailer’s ecommerce product pages (seamlessly, just like a “zooming” feature does) and provides shoppers with a more engaging, personal and emotionally satisfying way to determine whether an apparel item’s style and color are truly right for them.
Today’s launch of WSS Plug & Play ushers in several key advances to our existing product, including:
ONE DAY CONFIGURATION – Configuration can be done in as little as a few hours and without any backend integration.
MARKERLESS TECHNOLOGY – The first truly markerless product of its kind, the apparel item actually tracks to the shopper (a video demonstrating our award winning markerless technology is embedded below).
A NEW SHOPPER EXPERIENCE – Four screenshots detailing the experience are included below.
As “augmented reality” continues to be the hot new buzzword, we’ve seen several companies attempt to compete with our patent pending ecommerce product. The fact is we have several key differentiators that retailers and potential partners should be aware of when doing their due diligence:
Differentiators For Shoppers:
It just works with a regular computer and webcam. No need for fancy 3-D cameras or souped up systems that shoppers don’t have.
No annoying downloads.
No paper markers to print and hassle with.
Simply put, for shoppers, WSS Plug & Play is a barrier-free experience.
Differentiators For Retailers:
As noted above, configuration can now be done in under one day, and without any backend integration.
Because we eliminated all shopper barriers, retailers who integrate WSS can reach a higher percentage of their shoppers.
Technology moves fast, and our constant development cycles ensure retailers will always have access to the most thoroughly tested, and innovative solution on the market.
For more information, please feel free to contact us at info (at) Zugara (dot) com.
Yesterday I participated in an eMarketer webinar on “The Future of US Retail Ecommerce” and I wanted to draw your attention to one of their predictions: Ecommerce will outperform in-store sales over the next few years. And according to eMarketer, one of the factors driving that growth is Augmented Reality, which they label as a “sophisticated merchandising technique”. Of course as some of you may know, here at Zugara we’re just “a touch bullish” on Augmented Reality’s role in e-commerce’s future. But it’s always great to see that sort of 3rd party validation.
As usual, eMarketer provided a ton of great data, here are a few more points that I found interesting (I’ve embedded their entire presentation below though, should you wish to spend some time with it):
• Women account for 71% of the total dollar amount spent on online Apparel, Jewelry and Accessories.
• 87.5% of internet users shop online.
• 83% of online shoppers, are buyers. The #1 item holding people back from buying is the desire to see and touch.
UPDATE 1: Zugara is proud to announce that we were awarded The DEMOgod Award at DEMO Spring 2011.
UPDATE 2: We were interviewed by InLab Ventures directly after our presentation, video of that interview has been added below.
For those of you that missed the live stream of our launch at DEMO (on 2/28/11), below is the video of our presentation. Don’t worry, we had to keep it under six minutes, so it’s short.
As you’ll see, we’re working to revolutionize the online shopping experience, by creating the most “shopper friendly” online product of it’s kind. Our focus is on making online shopping an actual “experience” (rather than the process that it is today), by replicating experiences that we know have meaning for the offline shopper. Like the “at the rack moment” where a shopper takes the time to better visualize and validate if a product is right for them.
Oh, and all the shopper needs to interact with our product is a webcam and a regular old computer… something virtually every millennial has. No downloads, no markers, no supped up computer processors, and no crazy cameras that online shoppers don’t have (e.g. like the Kinect’s). Because why build something if most people can’t, or won’t use it?
As always we’d love your thoughts on the presentation below:
And if you’re curious, here’s our interview with InLab Ventures:
We Are Organized Chaos (WAOC) is Zugara’s (www.zugara.com) interactive marketing and advertising blog where we’ll be featuring some great projects and discussing upcoming trends in the digital world. Work — good and bad — will be critiqued. Hope you’ll enjoy reading our insights and thoughts on interactive.
